Auctions can be a less expensive way to buy baseball cards.
Below are tidbits on baseball & sportscard collecting.
Wander the website for more vintage
baseball, football, basketball, hockey, sports and
non-sport cards info on card collecting.

The vintage issue below featured elsewhere on this website:

1956 Topps Pins Checklist & Values

WOW ! Few issues compare to the 1956 Topps Pins set. The colorful and
attractive 1-1/8" diameter pins were packaged with bubble gum
and featured a color photo of player on front with a pin clasp on back.
Many of the images for pins are the same as on the 1956 Topps cards.
If you collect 1956 Topps cards than YOU MUST add at least one of these
1956 Topps Pin to your collection.

Packed with stars (no Mickey Mantle), the 1956 Topps Pins set
also had a few scarcities such as Chuck Stobbs, Hector Lopez &
Chuck Diering.

In the end, collectors of the day preferred cards to pins and Topps cut back
the 1956 Topps Pin set from a planned 90 pins to just 60.

1952 Topps Baseball Cards Checklist & Values

1952 is often thought of as Topps 1st baseball card set, but it was not.
Topps issued several smaller baseball card sets prior to their huge 1952 set.
Topps buzz word was "BIGGER is BETTER" for their 1952 Topps set which
Topps described as: "GIANT IN BOTH SIZE and NUMBER of CARDS" (407).

Key card in the 1952 Topps set is #311 MICKEY MANTLE.
Often called Mickey Mantle's Rookie card - BUT IT IS NOT. That honor
goes to his 1951 Bowman.
1952 Topps "High Numbers" (#311-#407), are very, very scarce with an
interesting story:
This HUGE set was released in series weeks apart. By the last (6th)
series, baseball season was over and football starting.
Candy shops had plenty of baseball cards from earlier series
so most cancelled their orders for the last series creating the scarcity.

Adding interest is how Topps disposed of the now un-needed cards including
THOUSANDS of 1952 Topps MICKEY MANTLE's. They dumped them into the Atlantic
Ocean like most of New York's trash in those days.

Auction's Rarest Vintage Baseball Cards

(part 1)Certificate Of Authenticity - a document that is used to verify the legitimacy of
a collectible. In reality, it is worthless, unless it shares a counterfeit-
proof serially-numbered hologram that is attached to the item, and the certificate
bears the signature of a notary public, or written verification by the manufacturer.

Common - any card which is not short-printed, an insert, a bonus card, or has an insertion
ratio. In short, the cards that comprise the manufacturer’s basic set.

Condition - the physical appearance of a card/collectible. Centering, corner wear,
photo clarity, edges, the presence of foreign material, signs of misuse are
the critical components. Along with rarity/scarcity, it is a major factor
in determining the value of a card or collectible.

Crease - an obvious paper wrinkle defect usually caused by bending the card [i.e.-
the result of being tortured on a rear-wheel bicycle spoke during the early ‘50s
and ‘60s].

Die-Cut - an insert/parallel card that differs from the basic card by a process of
the manufacturer "cutting" portions of the card revealing a special design.
Recent issues may also be individually and serially-numbered.